It is not only your privilege, but your duty, to acquire knowledge from every source, as the bee gathers honey from every flower. Collect and compare facts; for in every fact, whether great or small, there lies hid a lesson of wisdom,--a logic which is not only irresistible, but divine. Theories are of but little value unless attested by facts. All mere theories are alike worthless, whether they relate to the physical or moral world. "Prove all things, and hold fast that which is good." No better rule than this, for your guidance through life, ever was or ever can be given. Facts, though "stubborn things," are never falsehoods. You may therefore regard facts as truth, as the kind of mental food you should acquire, digest, and convert into nutriment, and thus grow strong and wise, until you have realized the great fact that "man was created but a little lower than the angels." For the purpose of self-culture, in its highest sense, an ordinary lifetime seems quite too short, though prolonged to threescore years and ten. The value of time cannot be overestimated. If we would but consider how many precious moments we fritter away and lose in an unprofitable manner, we should see that it is the want of a due regard for the value of time, rather than a want of time, of which we should complain. It is not, therefore, the fault of a Divine Providence that we have not time enough to perfect ourselves in the arts of a refined civilization, and in the realization of the highest enjoyment of which our nature is capable. Whatever else you may lose, never lose a moment of time which can be profitably employed. A moment of time once lost can never be regained. Insignificant as a moment may seem, your destiny may depend on the improvement you may make of it, on the deed or thought it may prompt. Life, though long, is made up of moments, and terminates in a moment; and all true knowledge is founded in truth. If you would prolong your lives, and enjoy health and happiness accompanied with vigor of mind, study the laws of health and obey them. Make yourselves thoroughly acquainted with yourselves, by becoming acquainted with the physiology of the human system, and by living in compliance with the requisitions of its principles. Nature is the best physician you can employ, whatever may be your malady; but in order to be healed by her prescriptions, you must apply to her in time, and adopt the uniform and temperate habits of life which her laws require.